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We added a feature to
our Sitting Room
Makeover of a fireplace. While it's not quite as elegant
as a built-in fireplace, we were pleased to learn about a selection
of beautiful fireplaces offered by
Home Decorator's
Collection (http://www.homedecorators.com).
The result is a fine piece of furniture that adds the charm and
warmth of a real fire to our Sitting Room. Once in place,
however, we decided the fireplace look might be enhanced with the
look of a hearth.
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The decision to create a
hearth became much easier than deciding how to create one. One
initial idea was to have a slab of granite cut, but experts told us that
simply laying granite on carpet would cause such materials to crack within
a short period of time. Other ideas included tile or linoleum.
We would look for ideas each time we stopped by
The Home Depot or
Lowe's. In one
such visit to Lowe's,
we found a stock pile of
Armstrong Swiftlock
laminate flooring at a clearance price.
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The packs of five panels
are each about 1 foot by 4 feet each; essentially each panel is a
strip of one by four tiles wide. The panels are easy to cut to
size and lock together when installed. We purchased one
package that offered tiles in a gray slate look. |
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We determined the
size of a platform that would become the hearth by measuring the
length of the laminate flooring panels and comparing that against
adequate space for the fireplace. Knowing that we had a number
of home projects, we invested in a table saw to cut the lumber to
the sizes we needed. |
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The thick plywood was used for the top and bottom of the platform.
We wanted it to be sturdy and heavy, so using thick plywood as a top
and bottom helped us to attain that goal. The pine was cut and
positioned around the parameter of the platform. Two
additional lengths (shown at right) were cut and added as center
support beams so that the platform would not tend to bow in the
center over time. |
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We used a product called
Liquid Nails
adhesive to position the pieces of the pine and plywood together, we then
pre-drilled screw holes and counter sank large head screws to permanently
hold the pieces in place.
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The laminate
flooring has tabs that has to be cut off of edges that we wanted
flush with the platform. We used the table saw to accomplish
all of our cutting tasks of the Armstrong flooring making certain we
always cut the pieces with the good side up to prevent the surface
of the table saw from scratching the finish. |
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Once cut, we used the
Liquid Nails
adhesive to secure the panels to the platform. We did all this
while positioning the platform on a pair of sawhorses so that the
working surface was at a comfortable level. We placed large
towel rags over the sawhorses so that they would not scratch the
surface when we had it turned over. |
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Above is an image of the
platform once the four exposed sides were wrapped by the laminate
flooring. We would not not need to attach flooring to the back of
the hearth since it was being placed against the wall and the bottom would
not need to be covered either.
We used caulk to fill
holes left by the countersunk screws and in spaces left by unused channels
of the Swiftlock interlocking system. That way any pressure applied
to the edges of the flooring would not cause otherwise hollow areas to
chip off.
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After the laminate
flooring panels were all glued into place and the adhesive dried, we
cut and positioned edge trim. Again, we used
Liquid Nails
to adhere the trim, but we also used an air nailer to shoot brads
into the trim to secure them in place. The trim not only adds
a nice finished touch, but it also hides the edges of the flooring
that would normally be hidden by baseboards. |
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We used an awl to hammer the heads of brads into the trim and a
paintable drywall filler to fill in indentations caused by the
brads.
We used a
Rust-Oleum product called
American Accents on the trim that actually causes objects to
look like stone when applied. We felt that a gray stone look
on the trim would compliment the slate look of the laminate
flooring. The paint itself is a gray tone, but very small
fragments of other colored material also shoots out with the paint
that causes a texture much like stone. We used a similar
product for a surface on a baker's rack that we updated and the end
result was very nice. |
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To protect the
laminate surface as we painted the trim, we used brown shipping
paper and taped the edges with blue painter's tape. It only
took a few minutes to paint all of the trim. |
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The next day, the
paper and tape was removed exposing a very dramatic look for our new
fireplace hearth. To address a concern that the vertical trim
may transfer paint to carpet, we applied a product called Saf-T-Bak
by Testworth Laboratories. This product is brushed on and is
formulated to coat the underside of rugs. We felt that type of
protection should be quite suitable. |
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In the end, the
hearth looks great. The construction is sturdy enough to hold
the fireplace as well as the
fireplace screen
that we constructed out of a framed stained glass window. The
hearth helps protect the carpeting and makes the fireplace appear to
be a larger centerpiece for the room. |
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